The ARPUs of the Big Four Dwarf Everybody Else

This week, I wanted to write about the recent shifts in the business model of news: the end of the advertising model, the rise of subscriptions, the difficulty of substituting the disintegration of local media with small digital outlets, and the limits of the non-profit system. Through my research across multiple financial statements and industry reports, I’ve discovered that the most compelling piece of data is the evolution of ARPU over the last year and since 2011.

In case anyone doubts it: the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google) has been making a killing thanks to their domination of the advertising business (Netflix earns a special mention for its mastery of the subscription model.)

I included the New York Times because it is supposed to be the gold standard for digital advertising with a vast range of products from programmatic to sophisticated branded operations.

Amazon is the king of ARPU with its giant retail operation which brought last year $752 per customer on average for its global 310 million customers. There is a significant imbalance in Amazon revenue due to the difference between the casual Amazon user and the Prime subscriber, the latter paying a $100 membership per year and buying many more products. But the most interesting part is the growth of Amazon’s advertising business: it produced an ARPU of $15, which is five times the ad revenue of most news outlets, including large audience brands.

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